Making The Connection

By permission of the parents we are privileged to publish the following interesting letter from Corporal Brown to his parents:

Amesbury, Eng., November 13th, 1914:

Dear Mother, – You may be surprised at the change of address, but I am now in Amesbury, on picket, will likely be here about a week or longer. We have a lovely place to stay at. It is a private house, loaned to the government by a Captain who went to the front. He has been killed lately, but they still have the use of the place. It is a large house set back in lovely well-kept grounds. There is a vegetable garden and a nice flower garden around the house, and lovely hedges and trees. There is an open fireplace in nearly every room, including the bathroom; there are ten men counting myself in my room. We have a clothes closet, a closet of shelves, a fireplace; and there are two large windows. We leave the windows partially open at night.

The picket we relieved had been here three weeks. We have a good bunch of fellows. I do not know them personally, but I have been on fatigues or something with some of them at times and knew a few of them by sight.

We are given two shillings per day for food allowance and are living like kings. I have rented a cot, mattress and pillow; it only costs a shilling a week for the three. Will put some gasoline on as a precaution, and will be very comfortable. I cleaned all up this morning, had a nice warm bath and an entire change of clothes, and am sending all my soiled ones off to the laundry. We have cleaned the house all over, scrubbed it, and are getting a little in the line of furniture such as tables and benches. The officers have outfitted their rooms. It seems too good to last.

Our duty is to be at the station to see that everyone travelling has his pass, and that it is not overdue; that is Canadians, we have nothing to do with others. We also have a town picket to keep the Canadians out of the saloons, and those without passes out of town. One day I was on fatigue loading trucks in Amesbury; that night I was put on main guard at 12:15 and was on ‘til 8 p.m. next evening, without any meals, but that was an oversight. I was Battalion Orderly Corporal one day. You ask about my comfort when in camp. I bought a pair of knee rubber boots, a raincoat and an oil stove. We bought cocoa, herring, and other things, and were fairly comfortable. We have had served out to us a sweater coat, a sleeping cap, a pair of boots, a pair of socks and the Oliver equipment. It is rumored we are to have our rifles changed for the short Lee-Enfield with the long bayonet. It is a better rifle and the magazine holds ten rounds.

Everyone from Carleton Place is well. None of the Canadians have left for anywhere; they are in different camps on the Plain. We get our pay twice a month, and have plenty, but when we go across we will just draw as we need it and the balance will be kept until we come back or sent to our next of kin. I do not like the idea of the wet canteen any better than you do. The lads were away from it in Valcartier, and now to have it and have plenty of money is the worst thing possible, but they are making punishments so strict they are cooling down some; several are being sent back to Canada. Needless to say the boys from Carleton Place are all well behaved. I have not received all the papers you sent. We have no trouble getting stamps, but when we are where we cannot get them we can mark them “Active service, no stamps available,” and it will go. Amesbury is a nice quiet little village. The name of the house we are in is the “Amesbury House,” but put the old address on my letters. I have my Carleton Place pennant and my silk Union Jack hung over the fireplace. Canada pennant got torn on the way across. I cut out the Maple Leaf and the printing and sewed it on my red sweater. Now that I have more time I will write oftener to you and others.

“In addition to the Carleton Place contingent with the 42nd Regt., many more of our boys have enlisted in the defence of the empire. Howard Maguire passed through last week from Saskatchewan and his brother Trevor went out from Ottawa. Alex. Shaw, son of Mr. W. A. Shaw, and Walter Rogers, son of Mr. James Rogers, also went through with the western boys, also Peter Anderson, nephew of Mr. Andrew Neilson.”

When the 42nd Left Perth

“One on the spot contributed the following particulars to the Lanark Era:

‘Der tag’ has long been a toast in the German army. Around the banquet table officers clink their glasses and enthusiastically drink as the toast passes. In plain English this toast means “The day.” Although its original significance is lost in the mists of antiquity, its present import points to the coming of the day when the Fatherland would stand the supreme test of its military might and efficiency. The day is here. Over the main hall of the Exhibition grounds floats the Union Jack, troops occupy the spaces round about, and on all sides one see preparations for war. It is the date scheduled for the departure of the first overseas contingent of the 42nd. The men are impatient to get away. Order succeeds order in rapid sequence, each one deferring the hour of leaving until Lieut. Col. Balderson rushes in a high power motor, and announces to his subordinate officers that the train has been definitely tabled. The hour of going is 9:30 p.m. Instantly there is a leaping to arms and the collecting of such articles of accoutrement as have been left unpacked until the last moment. It takes but a few minutes to get ready. Out of the unknown appears transport waggon, officers direct the loading, which, in less time than it takes to tell it, is piled high with kit bags and away to the station. Out of the number of volunteers offering their services a few have been rejected and already there are scenes of leave taking. Among the rejected is a young fellow, who, with his brother, had volunteered to serve. His brother was accepted, but he himself was left behind. As the full meaning of the separation burst upon him he rushed to his brother, clasped him by the hand, and said, “Well, good-bye Jack,” and kissed him. The contingent is largely Canadian. Of the 131 men bound for Valcartier 83 are Canadian, 36 English, 10 Scotch, 4 Irish, and 1 American. Each man is furnished with a small testament which he tucks away carefully in his kit bag for future use. One of the men, Serg. J. H. Brown, of Carleton Place, had two, one of which he gave the writer as a souvenir. It has been inscribed with words explaining the occasion and the gift, and will be long treasured in commemoration of Canada’s part in this Continental war.

As the transport waggon rolled away from sight a lusty cheer went up from the soldiers who were soon to follow. There are eleven married men in the force. So sudden has this all come about that many of them have not had time to say good-bye to wives and babes. The phone rings and we hear farewells, “Good-bye, loved ones until the war is over.” But this is not the time for weeping. Men must be up and doing. By seven o’clock, the troops are ready. Adjutant Captain T. R. Caldwell forms the lines and reports to his Colonel “All correct, sir.” The Colonel assumes command, and away they go headed by the brass band, greycoats bandoliered, in lines of four, Lieut. Col. Balderson at the head, behind him Adjutant Capt. Caldwell, Quarter Master Ed deHertel, Captains Wilson and Hall, Lieuts. Barnett, Morris Donisthrope, Morris Gardner and Malloch, and marching beside the troops, the two active service officers, Captain Hooper and Lieut. Scott. “The British Grenadiers” is the tune that sets the pace out of the gates. As the troops march through the town great crowds of people line the pavements. Cheer upon cheer sweeps along, the ladies clap hands and wave handkerchiefs, the men march in grim silence until they reach a point in town where the crowds are greatest; then as the band starts up the notes of “The Maple Leaf Forever,” the troops take up the strain and it carries along in measured cadences from housetop to housetop. Chaplain Capt. Rev. D. C. MacIntosh is with the boys. When they arrive at the station he and the Colonel face the men at the halt. Then follows a scene which shall long remain to memory. The Colonel addresses his men. He explains Britain’s position and Canada’s duty in the present crisis. He recalls the glorious traditions of the Black Watch, and commits to the keeping of the men before him the unsullied reputation which falls to their lot as soldiers of the king. He is followed by the Chaplain, who speaks straight to the hearts. “I know you will not fail,” he exclaims. “As I look into your faces I see determination, resolution, patriotism, courage and victory. Go forth, then, my men, in this war of righteousness and may God be with you.” The Chaplain’s address was most impressive. At its close there were a few moments of silent prayer, and then the whole crowd of over 2,000 souls repeated aloud “The Lord’s Prayer.” Col. Balderson called Capt. Hooper to his side. “Capt. Hooper,” said he, “I now give these men into your charge, take care of them.”

The men are now at Valcartier in training. In a few weeks they will be on the high seas steaming to the front. They may spend a few days in England, but much depends on the turn of the war. Our own representatives, Arthur Brown and Roy McIntyre, are in the front rank of the troop. It is likely they will be merged into a regiment composed of various units. We shall all follow their part in the campaign with interest in their welfare and prayers for their safety. Serg. Pearce, of Perth gave up his position in the Bank of Montreal and joined the ranks as a private. Among the soldiers is a private named Wilson, the sweet singer of the 42nd. He entertained his comrades before leaving with a number of ballads. They formed a ring around him and we shall never forget the sweetness of his voice as he sang “The Boys of the Old Brigade” and other war songs….

Mr. T. B. Caldwell, presented each soldier with a pair of socks – a useful and highly appreciated gift. The ladies of Perth gave each soldier of the Perth Company a “Housewife Kit,” consisting of needles, pins, thread, buttons, sticking plaster, chocolate and chewing gum. Col. Balderson and his officers have successfully staged the first act in the war drama played by this district. In the face of many difficulties they were able to raise and send to the front perhaps the largest contingent to go from any rural Canadian regiment. Capt. Hooper and Lieut. Scott are with the men, the former in charge. Hooper has seen service in South Africa and is a brave and competent officer.”

What were some of the differences between life in Ontario towns of sixty to seventy years ago and today? Glimpses of a town of 4,000 people at work and at play, as mirrored in advertisements in Carleton Place’s two newspapers of that time, the Central Canadian and the Herald, offer one of the answers. A few of these advertising announcements have been culled and condensed for their following second publication. They tell of some of the typical minor scenes and local events of an enthusiastic, hard working and lively period of national development, sometimes recalled as the booming ‘80’s and the gay 90’s.

New Publishers

We have fitted out our office with an entirely new stock of job and advertising types, in addition to what was good of the old plant which we purchased. Heretofore the Herald has been conducted by a gentleman endowed with more than ordinary knowledge and ability, a man residing in this county the greater part of his life. We come as comparative strangers to resume his position. As formerly, the Herald will give its support to the Liberal Party in everything that is for the benefit of the country and in accordance with the principles of morality and justice.

Fourth Annual Regatta of the Carleton Boating Club. Mississippi Lake Regatta Grounds, Thursday, Sept. 6, 1883. Edward Hanlan, the Champion Oarsman of the World, will give an exhibition. Lee, Plaisted, Hosmer and other notted oarsmen will take part in the professional race. $800 in prizes. Baseball match. Prescott Oddfellows Band, 28 strong. Grand Evening Concert in the Drill Hall.

Shouting Soprano

The Jubilee Singers of Tennesee University under the auspices of the Carleton Place Mechanics’ Institute, in one of their Weird and Thrilling Concerts. Plantation Melodies in the true Southern Style. Miss Piollie Johnson, The Great Shouting Soprano. Admission 25c, 35c, children 15c. Tickets at MacLean’s Book Store.

Zion Church Sunday School will hold its annual picnic Saturday, August 15, 1884 in Gillies’ Grove, just below the factory.

Stoves Supplied

Carleton Place Foundry. Come and examine our stock. Diamond ‘G’ Coal or Wood. Show Room at the Foundry.

Dave Findlay. – October, 1884.

Bucksin Mitts

Prepare for Winter. First class handmade Buckskin Moccasins and Mitts.

James Presley, opposite Methodist Church. – December 1884.

Newman’s Hall

New Public Hall opened by Mr. Robert McDiarmid. One of the best in this part of the country. Auditorium rearranged to accommodate 500 people. The stage scenery, painted by Sosman & Landis, Chicago, provides four scenes, the ‘woods’, ‘parlor’, ‘kitchen’, and ‘street’. The drop curtain presents a view of placid waters, rugged mountain rocks and ancient castle.

February 1885.

Shooting Gallery

Mr. Bush, proprietor of the Shooting Gallery under Victoria Hall, has taken out a licence for his business. He has good rifles and air guns.

May 1885.

Roller Flour

Now in operation. One of the best and most complete mills in this country. Price of Roller Flour, Bran, Shorts, etc. reduced. Graham Flour, Cracked Wheat, Oat Meal, Corn Flour, Brose Meal, Buckwheat Flour, etc., also manufactured. Liberal discounts to the Trade. Custom grinding as usual.

Horace Brown. – February, 1886.

Bedroom Suites

Furniture – A good handsome Bedroom Suite, five pieces for $16.00. Undertaking, Open Day and Night.

Weaving. The undersigned desires to inform the citizens of Ramsay, Huntley, and Beckwith that he is prepared to do all kinds of Country and Custom Work. A call from old customers solicited, as I intend to do all the work myself.

Andrew Dunlop, Weaver. Near George Tait’s Gardens, 12th Line Beckwith. – July 1888.

The undersigned has reopened his Meat Business. Hours 6 a.m. to 10 p.m., every lawful day, except Tuesday and Saturday mornings, when he will visit Appleton and Ashton with choice supplies, and Friday afternoons when the shop will be closed. Fifteen pounds of roasts, steaks and stewing for $1.00 cash.

Augustus Lavallee. – August, 1889.

Blacksmith Work

The undersigned are prepared to do every kind of Blacksmith work – Mill and Factory work – River Driving Tools – Waggons, Sleighs and Cutters made to order. Quarry Men’s Tools, Mason Tools, Agricultural Implements and Machinery repaired. Horse shoeing a Specialty.

In the Drill Shed, Louis Cyr, the Strong Man. His holding against a team of the Canada Lumber Co’s horses will be repeated at tonight’s performance. Concluding feat a lift of fifteen heavy citizens upon a 200 pound platform.

May 1892.

Kickapoo Indians

Free! The Kickapoo Indian Medicine Co. will open in Victoria Hall on November 30, 1892 for two weeks. Indian War Dances, Buffalo Dances. Also Ventriloquists, Banjo Players, Comedians, Contortionists, Wire Walkers and high class wonder working.

Commercial and meter rates for lighting. The first supply of lamps furnished free. Renewal lamps free on return of burnt out lamps. Prompt attention to orders for wiring.

Carleton Place Electric Light Co., J. M. Brown, Manager. May, 1893.

Canoe Meet

First Annual Meet of the Ottawa Valley Canoe Association to be held at Lake Park, Carleton Place, Wednesday, August 16th, 1893. Single and Tandem Races, half mile and mile, with turn. Tilting, Smoking and Upset Races. Grand evening Boat Illumination and Citizens’ Band. The Steamer Carleton will leave Town Dock at 1:30, 2:30, 7 and 8. Usual fares of 15 cents includes the sports.

Steamer ‘Carleton”. This week’s time bill to Lake Park. Boat will run from Caldwell’s Dock as follows:

Tuesday – 7:30 p.m. Citizen’s Band and Hop; Wednesday-9:30 a.m., 1 and 2 p.m. St. James Sunday School Picnic; Thursday-9:30 a.m. and 1 p.m. Baptist Sunday School Picnic; Friday and Saturday – 9:30 a.m. and 2 p.m., and to Innisville.

August, 1896.

Uncle Tom’s Cabin

Under the personal direction of John F. Stowe, nephew of the celebrated authoress Harriet Beecher Stowe, Uncle Tom’s Cabin will appear in the Town Hall, Carleton Place, September 19, 1896. Company of 40. Novel features include the blowing up of the battleship ‘Maine’.

Wool Wanted

The undersigned are prepared to purchase any quantity of Good Clean Wool. A full line of Fine and Coarse Tweeds, Blankets, Flannels and Yarns, always in stock. Custom work as formerly.

About seventy-five years ago, Carleton Place reached the speediest single period of its growth. The present instalment of a summary of events in the town’s youthful years tells briefly of some of the developments that were in the foreground seventy to eighty years ago. It reaches the period of the first childhood recollections of this district’s present elder citizens.

The selection of Carleton Place at his time by the Canadian Pacific Railway Company as a divisional and repair shop point added a third main industry to growing textile and lumber businesses. Other principal manufacturing industries here, notably the making of stoves and machinery and grain milling, were all expanding. Revolutionary discoveries in telephone communication and electric lighting and in new types of industrial machines were being put into use in this area.

Building construction and the number of the community’s residents doubled within about five years. At the end of the decade, Carleton Place, with a population approaching only 4,500, was second in size to Ottawa alone in the Ottawa Valley. On the main line of the new railway to the west coast Carleton Place was the largest community between Montreal and Vancouver with the exception of Winnipeg. While the Carleton Place of later years may be found to have increased in wisdom and prosperity as measured by its way of life, its stature as rated by the conventional yardsticks of population and of total commercial activity has remained with relatively little change.

Working Hours

1880 – The idle Hawthorne woollen factory was bought by James Gillies of Carleton Place from its original owner Abraham Code at a reported price of $16,400.

A one hour strike fro a shorter working day by about fifty men at Peter McLaren’s sawmill was unsuccessful. Working hours continued at thirteen hours a day, from 6 a.m to 7 p.m., and twelve hours on Saturdays.

Lawsuits were under way between the rival sawmill owners here, Boyd Caldwell and Peter McLaren, based on McLaren’s efforts to exclusively control the passage of logs down the Mississippi at High Falls and other points.

The first annual regatta and sports day of the Carleton Place Boating Club was held at Carleton Park (Lake Park), featuring sailing, rowing and canoe races, the Perth band and baseball team, and oarsmen from Brockville and Ottawa. Its evening events on the river in Carleton Place were a promenade concert, an illuminated boat dispaly contest, fireworks and a balloon ascension. The Carleton Place brass band wearing new uniforms rode in a large carriage drawn by four horses to a concert and ball in Newman’s Hall which lasted until morning.

Indian Camp

1881 – St. James Anglican Church was rebuilt, the present stone structure replacing a former frame building. The building contractors were William Moffatt and William Pattie. Chairman and secretary of the building committee were Colonel John Sumner and Dr. R. F. Preston. The Rev. G. J. Low succeeded the Rev. G. W. G. Grout before the building was completed.

John Gillies of Carleton Place bought the McArthur woollen mill at the present Bates & Innes site from its first owner Archibald McArthur. The reported price was 40,000. W. H. Wylie, lessee of the McArthur mill, bought the Hawthorne woollen mill from its new owner James Gillies at a price reported as $19,000.

Several parties of Indians were encamped late in the year at the east side of the town and frequented the streets daily. An Indian war dance was held at a local residence.

Railway Shops

1882- A new railway station was built at the junction of the two lines here. Exemption from municipal taxation was granted for the C.P.R. workshops being moved to Carleton Place from Brockville and Prescott. Major James C. Poole (1826-1882), Herald editor, predicted the town was “about to enter upon an era of advancement and unparalleled prosperity.”

Boyd Caldwell & Sons river-men, when their log drive was blocked by Peter McLaren’s dam at the foot of Long Lake, cut a passage through the dam under claimed authority of the Ontario Legislature’s Rivers and Streams Act, which had been reenacted after its disallowance by the Dominion Government. The ten thousand logs reached the Carleton Place mill in good condition after having been delayed three years en route. Peter McLaren’s assertions of exclusive river rights which had been rejected by the Ontario Supreme Court were sustained by the Supreme Court of Canada. The Caldwell firm appealed to the Privy Council.

Sawdust had become a local furnace fuel, according to Mr. W. W. Cliff, Central Canadian publisher, who reported : Messrs. Wylie & Co. use about fifteen cartloads per day, the machine shop about four, and Mr. Findlay about one. The sawmills of course regard it as their staff of steam life.

River Rights

1883 – The Bank of Ottawa opened a branch at Carleton Place, located on Bridge St. near Lake Avenue, opposite the Mississippi Hotel, with John A. Bangs as managaer.

The town’s leading hotel, the Mississippi, was sold to Walter McIlquham, formerly of Lanark, by Napoleon Lavallee at a price reported at $9,400.

In the Mississippi River strife between the two lumbermen whose principal mills were at Carleton Place, the Ontario Rivers and Streams Act was once more disallowed by the Dominion Government under Sir John A. MacDonald and was again introduced by the Ontario Government under Sir Oliver Mowat. The last disallowance held fifty thousand Caldwell logs in the upper Mississippi near Buckshot Lake and forced the Caldwell mill here to remain idle.

The James Poole estate sold the Carleton Place Herald, founded in 1850, to William H. Allen and Samual J. Allen ; and sold the family’s large stone residence at Bridge Street and the Town Line Road to David Gillies, son-in-law of James Poole. William H. Allen continued publication of the Herald for sixty years. David Gillies, original partner and later president of Gillies Brothers Limited of Braeside and member of the Quebec Legislature, maintained his home here until his death in 1926. Its site was the place of residence of six generations of the Poole family.

Divisional Point

1884 – Carleton Place became a railway divisional point. A result was an expansion of the town’s population and of its commercial activities. A large railway station addition was undertaken.

The McLaren-Caldwell lumber litigation ended with a Privy Council judgement upholding the Caldwell claims for public rights for navigation of logs throughout the length of the Mississippi River.

To make way for the building of a new flour mill the John F. Cram tannery and wool plant was removed to Campbell Street after fourteen years of operation on Mill Street. Other building operations in addition to house construction included erection of the town’s Roman Catholic Church and a bridge by the Gillies Company at the lower falls. The Council Chamber of the Town Hall was vacated to provide additional classroom accommodation for the Town Hall School. A bylaw authorized the raising of $6,000 to buy a new fire engine for the Ocean Wave Fire Company.

Electric Lights and Telephones

1885 – A telephone system connecting eastern Ontario centres including Carleton Place was established by the Bell Telephone Company. Twenty telephones were installed in this town in the first year, all for business purposes.

A direct current electric lighting system was installed here by the Ball Electric Light Company of Toronto, including five street lights on Bridge Street. The generator was placed by the Gillies firm at the Central Machine Works. It was moved in the following year to a new waterpower installation opposite the west side of the Gillies woollen mill.

On Mill Street a four storey stone mill was built by Horace Brown, joined by a grain elevator to his former flour mill, and was equipped for the new roller process of flour milling.

Working hours for the winter season at the woollen mill of Gillies & Son & Company were from 7 a.m. to 6.15 p.m. with closing time one hour earlier on Saturdays.

Junction Town

1886 – The railway junction and divisional town of Carleton Place was a stopping point for the first through train of the C.P.R. to reach the west coast from Montreal.

The new tannery of John F. Cram and Donald Munroe was destroyed in a fire loss of over $10,000.

Abner Nichols’ planing mill was built at the corner of Lake Avenue and Bridge Street.

Indians who had camped for the winter at Franktown, selling baskets through the district, struck their tents and returned to the St. Regis Reserve.

The May 24th holiday was celebrated by a sports day at Allan’s Point (Lake Park). Its baseball score was Carleton Place Athletics 16, Renfrew 5 ; and a no score lacrosse game was played between Ottawa Metropolitans and Carleton Place. The practice field for the lacrosse and cricket clubs at this time was the picnic grounds of Gillies Grove below the woollen mill.

Canada Lumber Company

1887 – Peter McLaren sold his lumber mill properties at Carleton Place and upper Mississippi timber limits at a price reported as $900,000. The buyers, the McLarens of Buckingham and Edwards of Rockland, formed the Canada Lumber Company. It doubled the mills capacity, with Alexander H. Edwards (1848-1933) as manager here. Peter McLaren three years later was appointed to the Senate, and died at age 88 at Perth in 1919.

St. Andrews Presbyterian Church was built on its present Bridge Street site donated by James Gillies, the congregation vacating its previous location in the old stone church building still standing at the corner of William and St. Paul Streets.

A bridge of ironwork on stone piers replaced the wooden bridge across the Mississippi at Bridge Street. A brick and tile manufacturing yard, which operated for about fifteen years, was opened by William Taylor, hardware merchant. A large brick manufacturing business of William Willoughby, building contractor, continued in operation. The Herald office and plant moved to a new brick building at the south side of the site of the present Post Office. A Masonic Temple was built, and a considerable number of residential and other buildings.

Reduced railway fares were granted for the fifth annual musical convention and choral festival of the Carleton Place Mechanics Institute, held in the drill hall at the market square, with guest performers from Boston, Toronto and other points. The Institute’s officers included William Pattie, Dr. R. F. Robertson, Alex C. McLean and John A. Goth.

The Carleton Place scene of the Eighteen Seventies is reviewed in the present section of a continued account.

The larger industrial plants opened here in the Eighteen Seventies were the McArthur and Hawthorne Woollen Mills and the Gillies Machine Works. Others included a lime kiln, which still remains in operation, and two planning mills. As a village of 1,200 persons the municipality of Carleton Place was first incorporated in 1870. A town hall was built and was converted within a few years to help meet the public school needs of an enlarged population. A new high school remained unused during several years of municipal dispute. A great fire destroyed a lumber yard stock valued at over $125,000. A lengthy business depression placed severe limits on the country’s prosperity. Western migration of the district’s sons continued, and began to reach the new province of Manitoba.

Building Boom

1870 – Carleton Place was first incorporated as a separate municipality by a county bylaw effective in November 1870. Its future growth was assured when at the same time the Canada Central Railway line was opened for use between Ottawa and Carleton Place, connecting here with the Brockville and Ottawa Railway Company’s tracks which extended from Brockville to Arnprior and Sand Point.

Building of the first stone structure of the present Bates and Innes Woollen Mill was begun by Archibald McArthur and was completed a year later. The central building was five stories in height. Other building construction included the present Central Public School on Bridge Street, later enlarged ; the present Queen’s Hotel, also later enlarged, built for Duncan McIntosh of Perth, father of the late Dr. Duncan H. McIntosh of Carleton Place ; and about fifty residences. The Carleton Place grist and oatmeal mills were taken over from William Bredin by Horace Brown (1829-1891), in partnership with W. C. Caldwell of Lanark, and were further equipped to manufacture wheat flour.

In the Fenian Raids of 1870 the Carleton Place Rifle Company, which had become No. 5 Company, 41st Regiment, served on duty at Cornwall under Captain John Brown of Carleton Place, and numbered fifty-three of all ranks. It included the regimental band under Bandmaster J. C. Bonner, proprietor of a local music store. Lieut J. Jones Bell (1845-1931) of the Carleton Place Company was serving at this time in the Red River Rebellion expedition.

Local Elections

1871 – Elected officials of this newly incorporated community were chosen in January 1871. Those elected were Reeve Robert Crampton, general merchant, and Councillors Patrick Galvin, tailor ; John Graham, wagon maker ; Dr. William Wilson, surgeon ; and William Kelly, innkeeper. School trustees elected were James Gillies, lumber manufacturer ; William Taylor, hardware merchant ; William Bredin, mill owner ; Patrick Struthers, general merchant and postmaster ; and Allan McDonald, woollen manufacturer. Other officers were James Poole, clerk ; James Gillies, treasurer ; James McDiarmid, assessor ; William Patterson, tax collector ; Joseph McDiarmid, assessor ; William Patterson, tax collector ; Joseph Bond, constable and road commissioner ; William Morphy and Brice McNeely Jr., pound keepers ; and Finlay McEwen and John Brown, auditors.

Town Hall

1872 – The first Carleton Place Town Hall was built on Edmund Street and opened in 1872. On the ground floor of the two storey stone building was the council chamber, a jail and caretaker’s living quarters. The second storey served as a hall for public gatherings.

James Docherty built the Moffatt planing mill on the former Fuller foundry property at the south shore of the river. In the McArthur cloth factory (now Bates & Innes) ten new looms were added. Napoleon Lavallee removed his hotel business to his large new stone building at the corner of Lake Avenue and Bridge Streets.

John G. Haggart (1836-1913), Perth miller, was elected member of Parliament for South Lanark. He continued to hold that seat for a record period of forty-one years and was a member of several conservative cabinets.

Lumbering

1873 – A lumber industry change in 1873 was the sale by John Gillies to Peter McLaren of control of the Carleton Place sawmill and Mississippi timber limits of the Gillies and McLaren firm. The Gillies interests of Carleton Place bought sawmills at Braeside, together with some 250 square miles of timber limits at a price reported as $195,000.

Gambling

1874 – Members of the Carleton Place Council were John Graham, reeve, and William Taylor, John F. Cram, Dr. William Wilson and James Morphy. Public billiard and pool tables were prohibited. The next year’s Council permitted their operation under municipal licence. A press report stated the Council of Carleton Place have passed a by-law prohibiting the keeping of billiard, bagatelle and pigeon-hole tables for public resort in that village, under a penalty of not less than $25. The reasons for this stringent step as set forth in the preamble to the bylaw are contained in the following paragraph : As gambling is a vice of a very aggravated nature, which encourages drunkenness, profane swearing and frequently causes the ruin of both body and soul of those addicted to it, and not infrequently murder, it should therefore be discountenanced and suppressed within the Corporation of Carleton Place.

The famous P. T. Barnum’s Circus was billed to appear here. Claiming such attractions as the only giraffes and captive sea lions in America, Fiji cannibals, a talking machine and over a thousand men and horses, its announcement said :

P. T. Barnum’s Great Travelling World Fair, Museum, Menagerie, Caravan Circus and Colossal Exposition of all Nations will pitch its Mighty Metropolis of twenty Centre Pole Pavilions at Carleton Place on Wednesday, July 15 and at Perth on Thursday, July 16.

New Growth

1874 – A volunteer fire brigade, the Ocean Wave Fire Company, was organized at Carleton Place. The municipality bought a hand operated pumper fire engine for $1,000 and a $200 hose reel cart. Members of the committee appointed by Council to organize the brigade were William Patterson, William Kelly, A. H. Tait, James Shilson and Abner Nichols. The new brigade’s initiation to fire fighting was the McLachlan lumber mills fire at Arnprior.

In the first stages of a five year business depression two new industries were started here. They came with the building of the three storey stone structure of the Gillies Machine Works on the north side of the river at the lower falls, and the opening of the four storey stone woollen factory of Abraham Code, M.P.P., later known as the Hawthorne Woollen Mill. Mr. Code was a member of the Ontario Legislature for South Lanark from 1869 to 1879.

Famous Struggle

1875 – A ten year losing battle was begun by Peter McLaren (1831-1919), owner of the largest lumber mill at Carleton Place, for monopoly controls over the navigation of logs on the Mississippi River. It was fought between the government of Ontario and the Dominion, by physical force between opposing gangs of men on the river, and in the courts of Canada and England.

In the opening rounds of 1875, men of the Stewart and Buck firm brought their drive down the river to the Ottawa after cutting a passage through a McLaren boom at the Ragged Chute in Palmerston, and a twenty foot gap through a closed McLaren dam at High Falls in North Sherbrooke. Boyd Caldwell & Son, which later carried this famous struggle for public navigation rights to a successful conclusion, was then employing seventy-five men on a ten hour day at its Carleton Place mill managed by William Caldwell.

Our Volume One

1876 – This newspaper was founded in January 1876, under the sponsorship of William Bredin of Carleton Place, with William W. Cliff of Napanee as editor and publisher. There were 1,800 persons living in Carleton Place.

When adverse winds delayed timber drives for several days in the lower Mississippi, some 24,000 sticks of square timber lay in the river between Appleton and Almonte at the end of June. Owners were the Caldwell, McLaren, Mackie, Campbell and Buck & Stewart firms.

A Saturday vacation starting date for the province’s public schools was advanced from July 15 to July 7. The Minister of Education addressed a meeting of the county’s school teachers here. Carleton Place had five public and two high school teachers.

Local Taxes

1877 – The McArthur woollen mill, equipped to operate by waterpower of the lower falls, was leased and reopened by William H. Wylie when the country’s business depression became less severe.

The six largest assessments for local taxes were those of the railway company, Peter McLaren, lumber manufactuer ; Archibald McArthur, woollen mill owner ; Boyd Caldwell, lumber manufacturer ; Abraham Code, M.P.P., woollen manufacturer ; and Horace Brown, grain miller. A tax exemption for the machine works of Gillies, Beyer & Company continued in effect. The tax rate was 14 ½ mills.

O’Brien’s Circus visited Carleton Place, Perth and Smiths Falls, with its transportation provided by horses and two hundred mules. Barnum’s Circus showed at Brockville and Ottawa.

High School

1878 – A separate High School of stone construction was built on High Street. During the course of bitter and widespread disputes and litigation, based on a division of business and real estate interests between the north and south halves of the town, the new school, though much needed remained unused for nearly five years.

A local option temperance statute of 1864 was brought into force in this area and retained for one year, prohibiting all sales of liquor in quantities of less than five gallons.

Alexander M. Gillies and Peter Peden, aged 21 and 24, were drowned in September while duck hunting at night near Black Point in the lower Mississippi Lake.

Great Fire

1879 – In continuance of prolonged controversy over the sites of the High School and Town Hall, the Town Hall on Edmund Street was converted in part into a public school, a step which brought a brief stage of physical violence followed by allegations of riot, assault and libel and a number of related court actions.

A planing mill was opened by Abner Nichols (1835-1905) on the riverside at Rosamond Street adjoining the Gillies Machine Works. A lime kiln which continues in operation was built by Napoleon Lavallee, hotelkeeper, on his farm at the present site of Napoleon Street. William Cameron acquired the business ten years later and operated it for many years. With two local woollen mills remaining in operation, the closed Hawthorne Woollen Mill was offered for sale by Abraham Code.

A great fire destroyed over thirteen million feet of sawn lumber in the northern part of the Peter McLaren piling yards, together with a section of ties and rails of the Canada Central Railway. The yards extended about three quarters of a mile along the railway line. The lumber firm’s loss was recovered from $50,000 in insurance and $100,000 in damages paid when court decisions holding the railway company responsible were upheld five years later in England. Fire engines and men came to Carleton Place from Almonte, Arnprior, Brockville, Smiths Falls and Ottawa, and hundreds of local helpers aided in saving lumber and checking the spread of the conflagration.